PM:Thailand is ready to develop economic partnership with Bangladesh

BANGLADESH, December 22 (TNA) - Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has expressed Thailand's readiness to develop a strategic economic partnership with Bangladesh through, particularly, expanding business ties and cooperation between the two countries' private sector. Yingluck made the remarks when attending a working dinner with leading Bangladeshi and Thai business operators in Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, on Friday evening. Yingluck suggested that the strategic economic partnership and connectivity projects, covering land, sea and air links, between Thailand and Bangladesh is a key toward the expanding bilateral trade and investment, noting that the Bangladeshi private sector will also gain more benefits once the Single Market of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN, in which Thailand is a member country, is established by 2015. According to the Thai premier, Bangladesh, with its over 600 million population, is a potential export market for Thai goods and services, which have also become popular among the Bangladeshi consumers seen partly by a surge of bilateral trade growth of some 40 per cent in 2010-2011, especially boosted by Thai food exports. The Thai prime minister also praised Bangladesh's sound economic growth of some 6.7 per cent last year, pointing out that the Bangladeshi private sector appeared to play a vital role for driving the country's economic expansion, and that Thailand would like to join forces with Bangladeshi private businesses to contribute to both countries' national economic expansion and development. (TNA)